You know that feeling that no one ever gets when they lose and you run around celebrating. Losing is the third worst thing on the planet behind wasps and brussels sprouts. Unfortunately, losing is something that everyone has to cope with. Losing might feel like the worst thing ever, but it is necessary in order to achieve success. A comparison one could make would be to the 2008 financial collapse. Everyone was getting in the market buying mortgaged-backed securities that had absurd ratings. People were buying houses with nothing down and almost expected a great return. People didn’t realize that there was risk in investing and not everything is as perfect as it seems. Once the bubble burst the United States economy collapsed harder than the Broncos super bowl attempt against the Seahawks. What happened in 2008 was a terrible injustice, but so far we as a country have learned from our mistakes. We have had a raging bull market for the last six years. Employment has gone up and the United States seems to be getting back on its feet. In RC Dawson’s case 2008 was the year it all started, the year we would grow with that six year bull market. The team has learned many lessons since its founding and RC Dawson has been a home for many students pursuing their love of robotics. Last week was a bad week for RC Dawson and the stock market, but at the end of the week the DOW closed at a gain for the day. This made me wonder what our bounce back was and what our gain from the Denver FRC Regional was. We lost, that sucked, but it would be naive of us to not look at the lessons we learned from this past week. The team gave it their all and endured through mechanical failures, long drives, tough losses and a since of defeat. What we have to realize is that at the end of the week robotics is supposed to be fun and educational. So many students have learned valuable life lessons as well as technical skills through the RC Dawson program. We all have spent late nights working on the robot and doing are best to make sure we can show up big at the competition. Although it might appear as if all that work was for nothing I think that the RC Dawson team would disagree. The team became a family throughout the course of the robotics season and I think at the end of the day that is just as good if not better than the DJIA 34 point rally on friday. We will keep our heads high and carry what we have learned from this incredible season into the next.